This invention relates to collectable cards, and in particular, sports trading cards such as baseball cards, hockey cards and the like.
Baseball cards and other sports trading cards have been available since the turn of the century. These cards typically display an action photograph or other image of a baseball player or other athlete on the front face, and statistics and other personal information about the player on the back face. Collecting and trading baseball cards and other sports cards is a popular hobby engaged in by both children and adults. Sports cards tend to appreciate in value over the years, with rare cards such as the 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card being valued at several hundred thousand dollars.
In recent years, collecting sports cards has increased in popularity, particularly among younger collectors. Card manufacturers have responded to this increase in popularity by introducing innovations such as holographic logos and gold-plated collector sets. However, conventional sports trading cards are passive, and the type of information provided thereon has remained relatively constant over the years. The present inventors have recognized a need and demand for sports cards which provide more information and value than that available from conventional passive sports cards.
An active trading card, which provides sounds in addition to the standard graphics and text contained on a traditional trading card, is the subject of co-pending application Ser. No. 08/433,851 filed May 2, 1995, and owned by the Assignee of the subject application. This talking trading card is self-contained, in that the speaker assembly, the replaceable battery, and the electronic data storage and processing components are all built into the card. It also has a relatively thin card profile. However, this card construction places certain constraints on the size, quality and cost of the components thereof.
There exist card reading devices which utilize scanning mechanisms for reading information from cards. In some cases, these devices are used with trading cards as part an interactive sports game. The information is typically stored in the form of bar-codes or magnetic strips mounted on a card which is scanned by a reader device for use in the relevant application.
These prior art systems have certain disadvantages. They utilize mechanical or quasi-mechanical processes for scanning data and transforming it into an electrical format, which tend to suffer from data entry error arising from mechanical imprecision. Those prior art devices which utilize physical storage methods, for example magnetic strips, sometimes experience data integrity problems resulting from wear caused by frequent use. Data integrity may also be lost through unintentional physical contact between the user and these forms of exposed data storage. Furthermore, the data storage capability of a bar-coded or magnetic strip, or other mechanical or quasi-mechanical means, is very limited. The data so stored is therefore used typically as a key or reference to one of a set of data groups required, for instance, to execute an interactive sports game, and which is stored in the "player" part of the system. The data stored on such cards is inadequate in capacity for even a few seconds of digitized sound message, as offered by this invention.
These prior art systems also tend to be bulky, expensive, and not-easily portable. Accordingly, they are not well suited to the collection of trading cards.